FREE plots of land, free homes and interest-free housing loans. These are among the offers PAS is dangling in front of Terengganu folk in its bid to recapture the oil-rich state.

PAS won control of Terengganu in the 1999 general election but lost it to Barisan Nasional in 2004 because of the goodwill among Malay voters towards then-incoming prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Mohd Nor Hamzah, who is defending the Bukit Payong state seat, said if voted into power again, PAS aimed to distribute 60,000 empty lots of land to young adults aged 21 and above.

“Each empty lot would be roughly the size of one-fifth of an acre and is aimed at giving needy recipients a foundation on which to build a house,” said Nor at a ceramah in Binjai Rendah last night.

Those who don’t want land can opt to apply for a free low-cost house while those who want housing loans can apply for an interest-free loan from a RM50 million fund, he added.

These schemes are part of a 20-point manifesto for Terengganu, which also included a plan to abolish all assessment rates.

Nor declined to reveal how PAS would fund these schemes but another ceramah speaker, PAS president Abdul Hadi Wang hinted that PAS will use proceeds from the oil royalty it collects from the federal government.

“We will properly manage the finances. What wealth we get from the royalty, we will use to stabilise the price of petrol,” Hadi said.

“When we get oil royalty, we can have enough money to end assessment fees. We can do all this if we are voted in.”

PAS currently holds 14 of the 32-seat state assembly. To form the next state government, it needs to retain its seats plus three more. – April 29, 2018.